


From the Ashes, I am Anew

by mukkiebee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Other, i'm the greatest, idk what else to tag, this is cool, tw: fire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 03:37:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12147810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mukkiebee/pseuds/mukkiebee





	From the Ashes, I am Anew

_Keith didn’t know how it had started; one moment he was waiting for the timer to go off on the oven, the next he was waking up to the smell of smoke. All he knew is that suddenly he was surrounded by flames twice as tall as he was. He knew to stay low to the ground, but in his young mind, he was panicking. He wanted to get out of the house, where were the firemen? Weren’t they going to save him? He stood, trying to find his way out of the house by himself - if they weren’t going to save him, maybe he could save himself._

_Keith inhaled and immediately began coughing. Smoke filled his lungs, making them burn with the need of oxygen. He collapsed on the ground, not five feet from where he had gotten up. He curled into a ball, his knees pressed against his convulsing chest. Around him the flames raged on, higher and hotter than before. “H-help,” he called out, his voice scratchy from breathing in the smoke. Tears fell down his face, his throat burned with the effort to call for help, he came to the realization that he wouldn’t be walking out of these flames by himself. The only way he would make it out of this alive was if he was carried._

_Something strange began happening around him, but Keith couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes. Even if he did, he knew all he would see was the blackness of smoke. The smoke flooded into his lungs, slowly suffocating him as his body slowly stopped convulsing. The flames licked his body, bringing him into its’ warmth, claiming him as its’ own. Keith felt something happening to his body, and unwillingly opened his eyes to see what was happening. His eyes burned from the smoke meeting them - drying them instantly. He gasped, only to begin coughing harder than he already was._

_As hard as it was to keep his eyes open, Keith tried his best. He watched as his body began to disintegrate before his very eyes. Well, it wasn’t disintegrating, more like it was falling away to ashes. He knew that humans burned, but he didn’t think that they burned to ashes before they actually died. He coughed as more and more of his body fell away into ash. Panic rose in his throat and he attempted to call out for help again, only to realize he couldn’t force his vocal chords to work. All he could do was watch as his body fell apart before him. Just as he thought he was going to die, something changed._

_Suddenly, Keith could see his body falling apart - only he wasn’t watching from his body, he was watching from the flames. At first, he thought he was dead, but if that were true, he wouldn’t be able to feel the flames licking the walls, or feel the firemen attempting to reach his body. Then he blacked out, and the last thing he was aware of was being held by the flames - then by the firemen._

Was it just a dream? Keith thought to himself, his eyes blinking open. His head hurt, as did his lungs. Was it just a hallucination caused by the lack of oxygen? Or did he really burn in the fire? If so, why was he in what appeared to be a hospital? Was this what the afterlife was like? The door to his room opened, causing his attention to shift from his thoughts to the doctor that had appeared. “Oh,” he rasped, his voice rough - likely from smoke inhalation. Perhaps he wasn’t dead after all.

“It’s quite a miracle that you’re alive, Mr. Kogane,” the doctor spoke, looking through his notes. The man looked up from the clipboard - he had dark red hair with brown eyes and an easy smile which was surrounded by stubble, but nothing near how his recent foster dad had his beard. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, Mr. Kogane, would you please answer to the best of your ability? A nurse will be in soon with water.”

Keith hesitantly nodded, looking at the man with wariness. He didn’t want to do it, but he knew if he didn’t agree, he’d have to do it anyway.

“Apologies, Mr. Kogane, my name is Dr. Hutchinson,” Dr. Hutchinson said, smiling at the small boy. “Now, to the questions.” He moved the front sheet of paper to begin reading, “Birthday?”

“October 23rd,” Keith spoke - his voice was scratchy, so he couldn’t get out the year. The doctor nodded, and right then another man walked into the room. This man had short blond hair, green eyes, and a smooth face. He smiled at Keith lightly, handing him a glass of water. Immediately, Keith drank it, letting it soothe his already burning throat. The cool liquid fell down his throat, letting him feel relief for only a moment.

“Focus, please,” Dr. Hutchinson said, once Keith had finished drinking. “Age?”

“Thirteen.”

“Guardians?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Lovell.”

“Good, good,” Dr. Hutchinson said, writing something down on the piece of paper. “Siblings?”

“None.”

“Address.”

Keith listed off Mr. and Mrs. Lovell’s address robotically, he was still stuck on the fire. “Where’s my guardians?” He asked quietly, his voice still scratchy despite the fact he had taken a drink of water. The blond nurse left the room quietly, Keith watched him leave.

“He’s going to get them.” Dr. Hutchinson moved to stand beside the bed instead of in front of it. Keith’s eyes followed him curiously, only then realizing the tube attached to his arm. He stared at it uneasily, only tearing his gaze away when the doctor cleared his throat. “I need you to tell me what you remember happening, Mr. Kogane,” his voice was soft, as if he was talking to a scarred child rather than - well, Keith supposed, he was a scarred child.

Keith sat silently for a while, waiting for the memories to surface. When they did, he only felt the urge to tell him about how he thought the fire started. “I wanted food so I was making some - Mr. Lovell taught me how to make some things with the oven. I made something to eat, and had to put it in the oven for a certain amount of time… I fell asleep… I think,” Keith said, frowning gently.

Dr. Hutchinson wrote something down on the clipboard, nodding at him. “One more question,” he said softly, looking down at the survivor, “how did you survive? You should have died, Mr. Kogane.”

Keith swallowed thickly, remembering the fire surrounding him completely, his body burning into ashes, and then being born again. He opened his mouth, but found he couldn’t bring himself to talk. Finally, he decided on the truth. “I don’t know.”

“The fire didn’t touch you, Mr. Kogane. Where did you go?”

Keith’s thoughts filled with answers, but he didn’t know how to speak them. He went into the flames, the flames protected him; claimed him as his own. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice shaking. The door to his room opened, and he was greeted with the sight of disheveled guardians.

“Oh Keith,” Suzanna, Mrs. Lovell, said as she saw him. “You’re filthy, honey,” her fake kindness filled him with dread, but he didn’t care. He knew they wouldn’t really care about his wellbeing. It was to be expected. “The nice doctor said you’d be able to leave tonight.”

Keith looked at Suzanna, his heart beating hard against his chest. “I will?” He asked, turning his gaze to Dr. Hutchinson, who nodded in affirmation.

“I will give your side to the insurance company,” Dr. Hutchinson told the other two adults in the room. They nodded.

It was shortly after that when they went to their new home - a small apartment downtown. Keith walked in, looking around at the nearly empty apartment. He didn’t talk much, it hurt his throat to do so. Keith felt uncomfortable, waiting for the inevitable blow up from his guardians. His foster parents never seemed to be kind - except one, but she had died shortly after Keith was living with her.

Keith didn’t have to wait long, no more than ten minutes before Jackson, Mr. Lovell, blew up.

“What in the world were you thinking, cooking on your own?” Jackson yelled, anger surging through his veins. Keith flinched, and looked down at his hands. They were unscathed - as was the rest of his body. Keith stared at his hands, his hair falling into his face to hide his eyes from view. He didn’t like being yelled at. “I know I taught you, but I told you to never cook by yourself! This is what happens!”

Suzanna didn’t say anything, and that’s what made it worse. Usually she would defend him, telling Jackson off for yelling at him, saying things like ‘he’s an orphan!’ and ‘he’s only thirteen!’ The fact that she wasn’t saying anything just cemented what Jackson was yelling - if she wasn’t standing up for him, then he was right. That’s the only think his young mind could come up with that seemed logical.

“Suzie,” Jackson said, gesturing towards the door as he made his way to it, “follow me.” When she did, Keith broke down, falling to his knees. They would get rid of him - he knew without a doubt that they wouldn’t want to keep him after this. Why would they? He burned down their home.

A few minutes went by, and only Jackson reappeared. Keith looked up, his eyes red and cheeks puffy from crying. His eyes widened when he saw that Mr. Lovell was holding a belt in his hand. Panic surfaced, Keith began to hyperventilate at the sight of the device that would mar his skin even more. Scars littered his back and the back of his thighs - all from either Jackson or a previous foster parent who believed in ‘discipline.’ As the panic rose within him, something else did too. Keith begun to feel hot, as if the heating was on in the small apartment - or maybe the air conditioning was off, and the Texan heat was leaking into the living space. Keith watched in terror as his foster father came closer and closer with the belt - there was nothing he could do. His hands felt hot, Keith looked down at them and gasped. They were smoking - was that normal after a fire?

Jackson raised his belt, glaring down at the child, “This is for burning my home do-” he never finished his sentence, Keith didn’t give him the chance. A feeling had overcome him, reminding him of when he was burning alive in the fire. The feeling was like what it felt like when you came home for the first time in a long time - Keith recognized it now. A feeling he only ever came to know when he was with Grandma Tabby, and now as the heat swelled within him. This happened in mere moments. He lost feeling in his hands, and then they were aflame, his eyes burned, rage pulsing through him that wasn’t his own.

When Keith spoke, it wasn’t his voice that greeted the stunned silence. “You will not harm my son, ever again,” the voice snarled, the flames burning brighter as it spoke. The man before Keith nodded, fear in his eyes. He was trembling, that much was obvious as he attempted to look tougher than he truly was. “If you try to, you will be greeted with death, in the most violent forms.”

When Keith came to, he collapsed on the ground. His energy was spent. A week later, he was walking into his new guardian’s home for the first time - _Takashi Shirogane._


End file.
